Known connectors with contacts having contact fingers in resilient engagement with a complementary contact surface, so-called "louvered connectors", such as are illustrated in Neidecker U.S. Pat. No. 3,453,587 and Crabbs U.S. Pat. No. 2,217,473, typically comprise elongate conductive strip members having a plurality of longitudinally spaced transverse openings defining longitudinally and transversely extending expanses therebetween which are bent or twisted with respect to the strip member so as to define contact fingers having opposed extremities displaced from respective opposite surfaces of the strip member. It is common to deploy these contacts by having the strip member ends disposed in a juxtaposed manner so as to provide a contact element having a substantially circular interior into which a male contact in the form of a pin member is insertable. The pin member diameter being greater than the diameter of the locus of the radially interior extremities of the contact fingers, the contact fingers are resiliently flexed upon pin member insertion and resiliently engage the same under sufficient contact pressure to provide electrical contact therewith. The strip member finger extremities extending radially exteriorly of the strip member engage the walls of a socket seating the contact element whereby an electrical path capable of transferring currents of relatively high magnitudes is provided between the pin member and the socket.
Performance considerations of presently known connectors and contacts of this type are several in number. Secure engagement of course need be provided between the separable connector parts, i.e., the pin member and the radially interiorly extending contact finger parts. This consideration necessitates careful control of manufacturing tolerances as between pin member diameter and contact element interior diameter, directly affecting manufacturing costs. Secondly, the resistance of the electrical connector to current flow therethrough is dependent to a large degree on surface contact area as between the contact fingers and both the pin member and the socket, engagement of the radially interior contact finger extremities and pin member being most significant since they are repeatedly separable in connector use. Reliability of this type of connector is also dependent on the cooperation of the contact element and the socket such that the former is not readily removable from the latter, giving rise to manufacturing tolerance control respecting the socket recess provided for containment of the contact element.
Known connectors of this type are not considered to readily exhibit the foregoing performance characteristics to the degree desired. Thus, unduly close manufacturing tolerances are demanded by existing connector structures of this type. Surface area engagement of the separable surfaces is regarded as less than adequate for cerain applications in which particularly low connector electrical resistance is desired. Finally, in the absence of structure, additional to the electrically functioning parts of the contact element and socket themselves, for securely seating the contact element in the socket, the contact element has been observed to be separable from the socket upon manipulation of the pin member.